2021 Duckhorn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford Napa Valley 750 ml

Duckhorn Merlot is a blue-chip Napa wine, a world-famous classic that you’ll find at just about every white-tablecloth chophouse in the country. 

But Duckhorn’s stellar Rutherford Cabernet—that’s a true rarity you seldom see outside the winery. 

The impossible-to-find 2021 edition hails from Duckhorn’s blue-chip sources in Rutherford, not to mention one of the very best vintages this century. It’s a Cab lover’s Cab bursting with dark fruit, graphite and notes of tobacco, with firm, fine-grained tannins that carry a beautifully structured finish.

If you love Napa Cab, if you love the classics, this is a must-have bottle—one you don’t get a shot at very often. Pull it out at dinnertime and prepare for the praise.

In the mid-70s, Dan Duckhorn and the brilliant winemaker Ric Forman set themselves an ambitious goal: to coax Bordeaux-like elegance from the warm, rolling hills of Napa. The duo traveled to France and spent nearly a year studying the most prestigious estates in Bordeaux. When they returned, they began scoping out vineyards they believed could offer First-Growth potential on the West Coast. As former Duckhorn winemaker Tony Biagi puts it: The pair had “a great nose for dirt.” 

Duckhorn is privy to blue-chip sites across Napa Valley, and this wine expresses not only their exquisite sources in the famed Rutherford AVA, but a 2021 vintage that ranks among the best ever in the region. It’s a winery-only bottle that is not in wide distribution—you can barely find a single bottle from ANY vintage in the last decade. Our close connections landed us an allocation, but it’s tiny. 

Every blue-chip steakhouse in America stands in line for its annual allocation of Duckhorn, but very few get a shot at this Cabernet.